26 August 2016

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

The fete is this Saturday! Please come and enjoy a great day with family and friends. We are very grateful for the ‘volunteering spirit’ of many of our families. We really do need more help though so if you can assist in anyway, please let us know. We need people to bake cakes, make sweets and help set up and clean up. Helping at the fete is a very visual way for the children to see you supporting the school and having fun while doing so! It is also a great way to model a ‘volunteering spirit’ to your own children!

There are many great opportunities at the fete. Prep to Year 2 parents have the opportunity to purchase their child’s art work. I have been told that numbers for pre-orders are down this year. The teachers and children work very hard to create these art pieces and would love their parents to buy them! There is still time as you can purchase the art works on the day. You can buy cakes, sweets, food, drinks, go in the raffle or auction, watch performances or go on the rides. It is really is a great day!

This week, our leadership team attended a professional development to broaden our understanding of how technology can best be used in Inquiry learning. It was good timing for us as we start to make decisions about future resourcing in the school. I will advance this conversation with the P&C over the next few meetings.

I would love to see you at the fete. I spend most of my time supervising the dunking machine during the day. My only break is when I am actually in the dunking machine! It is a lot of fun and is always in good spirit! I always enjoy the fireworks, it is so magical to see the faces of the children as the fireworks light up the community.

Have a great week.

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Post Study Tour – the 2016 movie is attached if you would like to review the great time had by all.

Prep 2017 – please enrol your child now!

Please come to the main office and get the forms and information pack if you didn’t attend our information evening. I am now also planning interview times for new families to Graceville over the rest of this term. Times are available over the coming weeks of this term so come in and book at the office.

Graceville State School recognises as its prime obligation the provision of access to an appropriate educational service for students resident within this community as defined by its local catchment area.

Please visit the following link which details our school enrolment management plan and also provides a link to the catchment area for Graceville State School:

This site also outlines the process for placing your child’s name on our waiting list if you reside outside of our catchment area.

Below is the calendar for Term 3 Junior assembly.

From the Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Wellbeing – Father’s Day

Stay tuned – Father’s Day events are in the planning stages. Our Student Council will be running an event to celebrate Father’s Day on Friday 2nd September. For Mother’s Day we celebrated by handing out single carnations to our Mums. This was a great success!

2 Minute Zone updates - Name tags seen in the pick-up zones!

We have been handing out the order forms to drivers in the pick-up zones so that they can order a ‘Name tag’ to go on their visor. This will make the process of using the 2 minute zones much quicker as we will be able to call the names out for the students. We will also hand out a reminder ‘bookmark’ with the rules. This may also be useful to drivers in the pick-up zones who are not parents reading the newsletter. We often see Grandparents or other carers in this zone and communicating the messages to these people can be difficult. I have attached the order form & the rules. If you require names tags please complete and return to the office.

Queensland Academies Brilliant Futures Program

The Queensland Academies Brilliant Futures Program is open to very highly capable students from Year 5 in 2016 who are seeking an assured pathway into the Queensland Academies campuses for commencement in Year 10. In Term 1 we ran an information session about this program. This is just a reminder that entries close soon for Year 5 students. See attached flyer.

Camp Quality

The Camp Quality Education Program has been booked to perform their Puppet show on Tuesday 6th September. The program will focus on helping children and teachers to continue to provide a supportive school environment for children affected by cancer, whether they are living with cancer themselves or have a family member living with cancer.

The program consists of a live, educational performance focusing on cancer education,

optimism, friendship and tolerance and a suite of educational resources for students and teachers.

Life Education

All year levels will participate in the Life Education Program starting on 31st August and running for the remainder of the term. All classes have a session in the Life Education Van which is an hour for lower grades and 1.5 hours for older ones.

I have attached the Parent brochure for your information. Permission slips have already been sent home and payment is required prior to 31st August.

Entries now open for Origin Energy's littleBIGidea competition

Calling all young inventors!

Students in Years 3 to 8 are encouraged to apply for the 2016 littleBIGidea competition. All they need to do is submit an idea, no matter how big or small, on how to make the world a better place. Entries close Friday 30th of September. Find out more at the competition website

Money Matters

Roberta Harycki

Thank you for your payments to date, BPoint is being driven very well by you!

Please ensure your child’s Permission Proforma has been completed and returned intact to their classroom teacher. This form will allow staff to quickly identify parental permission before allowing your child to attend the activity.

Family Term statements will be sent out this week – just as a reminder.

Payments by the “Last day of Payment” is a must.

Voluntary Parent Contributions (VC)

Programs in developing Curiosity and Powerful Learning is underway. The “funds target has not yet met the mark” so if you wish to contribute, no matter how large or small – it would be most appreciated.

A copy of the Principal’s letter and information sheet is available at the office.

Credit in Account: (e.g. -$10) - Please inform staff as to how you wish your account credit is applied. Our financial system does not automatically match to other payments.

Request for Refund form for an excursion paid and not attended is available from the front office. Prepaid ticketing excursions, curriculum programs and prepaid competition entries are non-refundable.

Payment of account days:

8am-3pm - Monday to Wednesday
8am-12pm - Thursday and Friday
BPoint is the preferred method of payment.
Eftpos, Debit Cards: Visa/MasterCard, cheque or cash payments are accepted.

BPOINT User Information

For payment of multiple items on your statement/invoice, you will need to do a separate entry for each item, entering the invoice number and the corresponding payment amount for that item only e.g.

Separate Entries for each line must be done to ensure the payment is allocated to the correct Excursion/Resource Fee.

BPOINT payments must be processed in time to clear (usually 2-3 business days) before the Due Date for payment.

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Thank you to Ms Julie West and the Senior Choir for your efforts with rehearsals preparing for the mini musical 'Oliver' and sharing it with the Junior Assembly this week! We appreciate the significant amount of time this has taken from you all and are looking forward to the next performance at the fete.

This Saturday our Senior Band and all choir students will be performing at the school fete. Please note performance times below. Mr Stiller will arrive at the music room at 11:30am for students to come in, set their instrument up and tune quickly, before heading to the hall. Percussion instruments will be moved to the hall on Friday. Once students arrive at the hall from 11:40am they are requested to assist with setting up the chairs, music stands and percussion instruments ready for the Senior Band performance.

Choir students should arrive to the hall 10 minutes before their scheduled performance time and sit on the floor in front of the stage (Senior Choir students should already be in costume).

Families and members of the school community are warmly invited to attend the musical performances in the hall on Saturday at the fete, from 12 noon. We would like to thank our students, staff and families for their efforts and support.

Upcoming performances:

Fete – The Senior Band and all choir students will be performing at the following times:
12 pm - Senior Band,
12:25 pm - Year 2/3 Choir
12:35 pm - Senior Choir

7th & 8th September - Instrumental Music Workshop (cost $40 - all IM students involved) with a concert on Thursday 8 September at 2pm

16th November – Evening Concert 6pm - all choir and instrumental students will be performing

23rd November – Grandparents Concert - all choir students and the Senior Strings

Please note that additional performance dates may be added during the semester.

Fete Update

WE MADE IT! Fete Day is here! Yeehaa.

Get ready for fun after everyone's hard work, clearing out, sorting, depositing, donating, shopping, raffling, buying, jamming, baking and sweet making.

We are here and it is time to start celebrating! Thank you to everyone who has pitched in to make this fete an utterly memorable one.

Firstly, if you have time, we'd love to see you after school Friday to set it all up. This runs so smoothly with as many people as possible. The air is electric on set up day and the kids are pumped - they are desperate to help too. Everyone can join in.

Fete day is all about fun. Help where you can and keep a smile on your dial, apart from when you're eating something delicious.

Help us clean up Sunday and we'll keep feeding you. Free breakfast BBQ and coffee for all the helpers who put our school back together again ready for classes on Monday.

Check out the below link. It is the fete booklet and will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the fete. There's a map, performance programme, Cent Sale, Auction and Raffle prize lists, Dunking Machine Roster and the names of all our wonderful and generous sponsors. The booklet is amazing and is just another example of the amazing talent and generous parent body we have here at Graceville.

Have a great fete and thank you all.

The Fete Committee

Active School Travel

TACO TUESDAY!

(Travel Actively Coming-to-school On)

Fete Competition

Thanks to all the students who participated in the Fete competition. There were many entries and it was great to see so many students taking the opportunity to actively travel over the last six weeks.

The lucky winners of the ride bands are…….

Caiti D - 6A
Eirini T - 5P
Isaac B - 4E
Hamish W - 3E
Edison H - 2C
Grace L - 1L
Owen A - Prep M

The winners of the free toss of at the lob-o-choc are…..

6A

Congratulations! Your class had the most entries for the six weeks of the competition.

We hope you all have a fantastic time at the Fete. Please remember if you are driving to park thoughtfully. Do not park over driveways, over yellow lines or in places where parking is not permitted.

If you have a few spare hours a month to help us run this fantastic program we are looking for volunteers to join our Active Travel Committee. Our next meeting will be on 13th Oct @ 10:45am in the Waratah Room. Please contact Jo Richards at sajrichards@iinet.net.au for more information.

P & C

FETE!

Let's get ready to rumble!! Calling all available hands on Friday to help setup for the fete. After school drop off is a busy time for the school to begin its transformation. Then again after school, once the children have finished we make further changes. Anyone with a spare couple of hands or anyone with some spare muscles would be very welcome to lend us a hand. Even if you only have 15 minutes - just lifting a couple of boxes of books or garage sale items on to the tennis courts - every bit really does help!

Again on Sunday morning, we kick off at about 8.00am. If you have some muscles and a leaf blower lying around at home, send them both over to the school for a couple of hours to help the clean-up. We are done in a couple of hours and finish with a lovely BBQ breakfast to say thanks.

FACEBOOK

The fete has an active Facebook page for updates in the lead-up to our big day. Please have a look and like “Graceville State School Fete” online to keep up to date. Another great page to join/like is the “Graceville State School by parents” on Facebook.

SAVE THE DATE – PARENTS DISCO

Put this date in your diary and get ready for some old school disco fun! Saturday 19 November.

BUILDING FUND

The P&C, like most other P&Cs, offers parents an opportunity to take part in a Tax Deductible Voluntary Contribution Scheme. If you wish to contribute to the P&C building work projects for the school, please contact the P&C Executive at the email below and we will send you the details. The building fund is going towards climate controlling the school, continuing to air condition the class rooms and the major project of fixing the ventilation of the hall.

NEXT MEETING

The P&C meeting was held this Wednesday - minutes and a report will follow. The next meeting is on Wednesday 12th of October (2nd week back after holidays) at 7.30pm in the Waratah Room (which is beside the staff room in the main reception block). Everyone is very welcome.

Please feel free to contact the P&C executive via email: pandc@gracevilss.eq.edu.au.

Tuckshop News

A few weeks ago one of our longest serving tuckshop volunteers hung up her "tuckshop apron" for good. Anna Cottell has been helping in the Graceville State School Tuckshop for 12 years and she's worked with 5 different Tuckshop Convenors in that time. Anna, thank you so much for all you have contributed to our Tuckshop.

Crazy, crazy, crazy week!

Monday, 15/8 - 38 orders – this is unheard of!!!
Tuesday, 16/8 - 45 orders – that’s a lot – crazy
Wednesday, 17/8 - 68 orders – the record is 70!
Thursday, 18/8 - 57 orders – still pretty high
Friday, 19/8 - 177 orders – a new world record!!!

Keep it coming....

Volunteering next week, commencing Monday, 29 August:

Monday, 29/8 - Simone Braithwaite
Tuesday, 30/8 - Kelly Steen and Itziar Pascoe
Wednesday, 31/8 - Evie Askew and Sara Williams
Thursday, 1/9 - Kathy McPhie and Liz Sbeghen
Friday, 2/9 - Donna Jones, Rowanne Wright, Lynne Griffiths and Monica Kim

Of course, any tuckshop questions, please email: tuckshop.gss@gmail.com

Amanda, Ally and Anne

Contact Club

The next Contact Club will be held on Wednesday the 7th of September. Come along straight after drop-off or reading group for some book covering, a cuppa and a chat. There must be a lot to talk about post-fete! The contact used to cover the books makes it super easy.

Tea and coffee is supplied and good company and laughs are free! See you there or, for more information, email Amanda at thecarps.home@gmail.com.

Scholastic Book Club

All children should soon receive the latest Scholastic Book Club catalogues. Orders will close on Monday 29th of August and the books will be distributed approximately two weeks later, just in time for the holidays.

Thank you for using our preferred payment option – LOOP – Linked Online Ordering and Payment available by clicking on the link below or download the LOOP app for Apple or Android.

No need to send paper orders to school. No Cash Orders Please – Graceville is running a Cashless Book Club. There is a box in the library for paper orders with a cheque made out directly to Scholastic Australia.

Community Notices

Staverton Kindergarten

Staverton Kindergarten has places available for age appropriate children for 2017 (children born 1/7/12 to 30/6/13). Contact details are listed below.

They will also be conducting a parent information session for preparing for Prep.

Please call 3379 1511 or visit our website via the link below for further information.

School Holiday Cricket Clinics

Boys and girls, aged 6 to 17, are welcome to attend Holiday Cricket Clinics conducted by Henschell Cricket Academy Pty Ltd.

These Clinics concentrate on skills and activities for the beginner to the representative player whilst having fun.

Where: Fig Tree Pocket State School, Cubberla Street, Fig Tree Pocket
When: Monday 19 September 2016 to Thursday 22 September 2016 inclusive (4 days)
Times: 8:30am to 12:00pm daily
Cost: $199.00 (Incl. GST) (family rates available)
Contact: Email – henschellcricket@bigpond.com or Phone – Brett Henschell 0458 026 224